To list the resume of Suzanne Whang would take up a full page of this magazine. So to sum it up, she is a comic, author, TV host on HGTV’s House Hunters, starred in the TV show Las Vegas, and has landed guest roles on Cold Case, Two & a Half Men, Boston Legal, Still Standing, Criminal Minds, Nip/Tuck, The Practice, Strong Medicine, Robbery Homicide Division, Norm, and NYPD Blue. She was also in the film Constantine and was the first person to send Oprah Winfrey The Secret. But that is just scratching the surface.
As a performer however, Whang’s heart belongs to Sung Hee Park. The politically incorrect alter-ego will leave you rolling in the aisles at Edmonton’s The Comic Strip May 28th to 31st.
“It all started in my acting class,” she told GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine over the phone from Los Angeles. “We were encouraged to write our own material and take risks and not be afraid to fail. I am a ballsy chick so I decided to write some stand up comedy and performed it for the teacher. That wasn’t the character initially. The bit was originally about stupid shit that people say to Asian women. I know I look like this, but I was born in Virginia. People say ‘Your English is so good!’ Thanks, I learned it in Virginia. So these are stupid things people have said to me throughout my life.”
“The teacher laughed hysterically and said ‘this is great material you could do it in comedy clubs, but you should embrace the Asian stereotypes that you hate so much.’ What? Are you kidding me? I have been proving to everyone my whole life that I am not like that. And he said ‘Exactly. You should embrace it as part of you and see what happens.’”
The suggestion did not go over well at first, but Whang gave it some afterthought.
”I was livid and thought about quitting the class, even though he had been a great teacher up until that moment. I thought about it for awhile and decided to at least try what he was saying. So I created the character. I put on the Asian dress and stood there livid in my living room. Then I decided, what if she was a stand up comic from Korea who doesn’t speak English very well and tells jokes that are really inappropriate and filthy but she doesn’t understand what she is saying. I got really excited about that. I brought that back to my acting class and it was such a huge success. It made me realize that embracing what I had been resisting so much really was great. It really gave me a way to use my Asian ancestry in a satirical way to make fun of stereotypes, racism and prejudice in America. People either think it is the funniest thing they have ever seen or they want to picket my act.”
The result is a blend between Archie Bunker from TV’s All In The Family and Andy Kaufman. In fact, Whang won the inaugural Andy Kaufman award at the New York Comedy Festival. Performing comedy and doing speaking engagements is her favorite thing, she says.
”Anything where I am standing by myself on a stage in front of people saying things I have written, is my favorite thing. I tailor whatever I say to whom I am talking to. I feel like I was born to stand at a podium and talk to people. The ability to make people laugh, in my opinion is a great gift. When you are laughing you have to be at the present moment. It kicks in endorphins and boosts your immune system, you feel good. Truly it is the best way to have people learn. The best way for me to teach is to present things with a sense of humor. I can’t seem to hear people when they are standing on their soapbox being serious, screaming at me or wagging their finger.”
If you are looking for some laughs, you will get them at the show. Watching clips on her website shows her to be, if not hysterically funny, then very politically incorrect.
“I think what is happening on the planet right now, we need more laughter. People who haven’t seen my show before, or only seen me hosting on (House Hunters) will be floored. …It will make you laugh, make you cry and make you feel like you’ve got your money’s worth.”
She also hopes that the GLBT community will come out to the show. She was very supportive in standing up against Prop 8 in California and has a huge gay fan base.
“Provincetown, Massachusetts has been my favorite place to do shows because of the incredible gay audiences. I thought I knew how to entertain an audience and then I played for an all-gay audience. You would have thought I was Cher or Madonna or something, it was incredible. I have never experienced that kind of respect until I played for an all-gay audience.”
